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The oldest whales in the ocean were alive before 'Moby-Dick' and have the harpoons to prove it
Upworthy ^ | April 28, 2025 | Upworthy Staff

Posted on 04/30/2025 6:32:40 PM PDT by Macho MAGA Man

Thanks to some thoughtful collaboration between researchers and traditional Inupiat whalers (who are still allowed to hunt for survival), scientists have used amino acids in the eyes of whales and harpoon fragments lodged in their carcasses to determine the age of these enormous animals—and they found at least three bowhead whales who were living prior to 1850. Granted those are bowheads, not sperm whales like the fictional Moby Dick, (and none of them are albino, I think), but still. Pretty amazing, huh?

Bowhead whales reach an average length of 35 to 45 feet, and they are believed to live over 200 years. One of the big reasons for their longevity is that they have genes that may allow for the repair of damaged DNA. Researchers believe that the bowhead is the whale with the longest lifespan. Baleen whales have been found to live longer than toothed cetaceans such as the sperm whale or orca.

(Excerpt) Read more at upworthy.com ...


TOPICS: History; Miscellaneous; Pets/Animals; Science
KEYWORDS: 1850; baleenwhales; bowheadwhale; bowheadwhales; dna; godsgravesglyphs; harpoons; helixmakemineadouble; inupiat; inupiats; lifespan; mobydick; whalehunters; whales; whaling; wildlife
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To: Macho MAGA Man

Back in the early 1980’s I was performing research at the university that required surveys being mailed out to corporate executives.

While the survey responses appeared to be anonymous, I never stated they were.

An old printer gave me a bottle of whale oil that I put in my Bates automatic number stamping machine. The oil was clear and invisible on the back of the paper. However, under a black light the oil printed numbers were clearly visible.

Whale oil can be used to write on paper and the paper appears blank until it’s help under a black light.


21 posted on 05/01/2025 1:21:15 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings )
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To: Texan5

Native Alaskan’s are held to quota
and hunt only for a subsistance
life style. They are not allowed
to profit from any meat or oil
derived from the taking of bowheads.
They can, however, profit from
art artifacts derived from the
skelatal remains, and often search
for whale and walrus carcases for
this reason.
Non-natives can be fined for
possesion of whale bones.


22 posted on 05/01/2025 1:50:46 AM PDT by Lean-Right (Eat More Moose)
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To: Does so

Its really good stuff.

“Bowhead whale oil is now an essential ingredient in many of Uasau’s products, which are soothing for those who suffer from common skin ailments like seasonal dry skin, eczema and even psoriasis.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-reclaiming-inuit-ingredients-sets-this-body-care-company-apart-while/


23 posted on 05/01/2025 2:31:42 AM PDT by Candor7 (Ask not for whom the Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!<img src="" width=00</img><a href="">tag</a>) )
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To: Clutch Martin

Whale oil was a component of limited slip differentials in vehicles (GM) until it was banned. It took years to engineer a replacement as good.


24 posted on 05/01/2025 5:45:16 AM PDT by The Antiyuppie (When small men cast long shadows, it is near the end of the day.)
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To: Macho MAGA Man

... traditional Inupiat whalers (who are still allowed to hunt for survival) unlike the Makah tribe, on the western most point of US side of the Strait of Juan De Fuca, who hunt whales for cash in strict contravention of the Treaty of Neah Bay, 1855

https://goia.wa.gov/tribal-government/treaty-neah-bay-1855


25 posted on 05/01/2025 7:42:55 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Lean-Right

Thanks for the info-I still don’t think that anyone needs to hunt an animal that lives for a century or two unless they are overpopulating-hunt something else...


26 posted on 05/01/2025 12:45:14 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"... )
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To: FLT-bird

Those windmills are harmful to other marine life as well-get rid of them...


27 posted on 05/01/2025 12:49:58 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"... )
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To: Macho MAGA Man; wardaddy; CatHerd

“not sperm whales like the fictional Moby Dick

‘The True-Life Horror That Inspired ‘Moby-Dick’
The whaler Essex was indeed sunk by a whale—and that’s only the beginning’

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-life-horror-that-inspired-moby-dick-17576/

‘...By November of 1820, after months of a prosperous voyage and a thousand miles from the nearest land, whaleboats from the Essex had harpooned whales that dragged them out toward the horizon in what the crew called “Nantucket sleigh rides.” Owen Chase, the 23-year-old first mate, had stayed aboard the Essex to make repairs while Pollard went whaling. It was Chase who spotted a very big whale—85 feet in length, he estimated—lying quietly in the distance, its head facing the ship. Then, after two or three spouts, the giant made straight for the Essex, “coming down for us at great celerity,” Chase would recall—at about three knots. The whale smashed head-on into the ship with “such an appalling and tremendous jar, as nearly threw us all on our faces.”

The whale passed underneath the ship and began thrashing in the water. “I could distinctly see him smite his jaws together, as if distracted with rage and fury,” Chase recalled. Then the whale disappeared. The crew was addressing the hole in the ship and getting the pumps working when one man cried out, “Here he is—he is making for us again.” Chase spotted the whale, his head half out of water, bearing down at great speed—this time at six knots, Chase thought. This time it hit the bow directly under the cathead and disappeared for good.

The water rushed into the ship so fast, the only thing the crew could do was lower the boats and try fill them with navigational instruments, bread, water and supplies before the Essex turned over on its side.

Pollard saw his ship in distress from a distance, then returned to see the Essex in ruin. Dumbfounded, he asked, “My God, Mr. Chase, what is the matter?”

“We have been stove by a whale,” his first mate answered....


28 posted on 05/01/2025 3:29:27 PM PDT by Pelham (President Eisenhower. Operation Wetback 1953-54)
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To: Texan5

I wonder if the Inupiaks can deal in bones and teeth, say for scrimshaw purposes? Asking for a friend who hauled a pretty big whale bone off Sandy Neck back in the last century.


29 posted on 05/01/2025 4:01:16 PM PDT by metesky ("Leave us go amongst them." - Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton- Ward Bond, The Searchers)
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To: Pelham; wardaddy

Cool story!

Whales aren’t stupid.

True story: Many years ago, I was sort of watching a National Geographic show while cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. The part about whale um, reproduction, came along, and I looked up to see male whale um, you know — parts — towering up out of the ocean like New York skyscrapers. I was shocked!

My husband was doing some paperwork in the home pffice, so I pressed the intercom button and said “You gotta come see this! Whale weenies five storeys tall!”

Little did I know, the intercom also blasted from the rear deck and was heard by our neighbors hosting a big backyard barbeque. Oops!

I never lived it down, but at least the neighbors and their guests had a sense of humor (and yes, rushed inside to see the sights on the TV at the time).


30 posted on 05/01/2025 4:05:24 PM PDT by CatHerd (Whoever said "all's fair in love and war" probably never participated in either.)
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To: Macho MAGA Man
Some do not live nearly so long.


31 posted on 05/01/2025 4:05:39 PM PDT by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”)
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To: Sirius Lee

LMAO


32 posted on 05/01/2025 6:20:15 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Looks like I'll have to buy the White Album again.)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

Small potatoes compared to the Faroe Island “festival”

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/05/07/blood-sport-or-humane-and-quick-controversial-whale-slaughter-begins-in-faroe-islands


33 posted on 05/02/2025 12:48:53 AM PDT by Salamander (Please visit my profile page to help me go home again. https://www.givesendgo.com/GCRRD)
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To: Texan5

Nope.
Be like hunting Galapagos Tortoises to make soup


34 posted on 05/02/2025 12:52:18 AM PDT by Salamander (Please visit my profile page to help me go home again. https://www.givesendgo.com/GCRRD)
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To: Texan5

I hate those evil things and every time one blows up I rejoice.

Damn bird blenders that’ll never produce enough electricity to even pay for them.

And then they have to specially dispose c them because they’re so damn toxic.

Yeah.

Brilliant invention.


35 posted on 05/02/2025 12:55:54 AM PDT by Salamander (Please visit my profile page to help me go home again. https://www.givesendgo.com/GCRRD)
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To: Pelham

If you harpoon a whale for a “joyride” you deserve everything you get.

Sadistic as hell.


36 posted on 05/02/2025 1:00:12 AM PDT by Salamander (Please visit my profile page to help me go home again. https://www.givesendgo.com/GCRRD)
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To: CatHerd

So happy I missed that show.

😳


37 posted on 05/02/2025 1:01:07 AM PDT by Salamander (Please visit my profile page to help me go home again. https://www.givesendgo.com/GCRRD)
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To: Salamander

Yeah, perhaps that is excessive - seems like a “clam bake”, though! LOL. The fact they whale should be enough - the festival can simply represent whales, and whaling, maybe.

Will be up at Hagerstown tomorrow. Library in town. Annual conference for the cemeteries! Rose Hill.


38 posted on 05/02/2025 12:41:52 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs.)
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To: the OlLine Rebel

Don’t forget to pat Rollo on his head.


39 posted on 05/02/2025 12:49:54 PM PDT by Salamander (Please visit my profile page to help me go home again. https://www.givesendgo.com/GCRRD)
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To: Salamander

Moby Dick seconds that idea.


40 posted on 05/02/2025 1:38:26 PM PDT by Pelham (President Eisenhower. Operation Wetback 1953-54)
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